Samsung says Trigger Happy Apple caused iPhone, iPad Patent War

Lawyers representing Samsung have insisted that the legal war between Apple and the Korean electronics giant could have been avoided. According to Samsung's legal team, the company followed the "informal policy of not suing Apple for patent infringement" in order to maintain its partnership with Apple for component manufacturing.

Apparently, Samsung preferred to look the other way while Apple used unlicensed 3G telecoms technology. The negotiations for patent licensing were going rather well until April this year, when the Cupertino-based company started the war, by filing a patent infringement lawsuit taking its Korean partner by surprise.

At the time, the Apple Samsung war "might have been avoided", the Koreans' lawyers told an Australian court, if Apple hadn't been so trigger happy.

Now, in the latest phase of this legal battle, Samsung seems to have won a round, with the Federal Court in Sydney deciding yesterday that a full hearing into the 3G patent infringement case would go ahead in March 2012, despite strong opposition from Apple.

The court decided that the postponement, suggested by Apple, until August next year, would allow Apple to release a new product on the market and by doing so, unfairly disrupt Samsung's legal case which would have to be revised yet again. Samsung has in turn agreed to delay its attempt to ban iPhone 4S sales in Australia until the hearing.